Cape Wickham Opening

[Brett_Morrissy]

Three airlines service King Island. Sharp Airlines uses a 19 seat Fairchild Metroliner with daily flights from 2 airports on Tasmania.  King Island Air uses an 18 seater and flys 12 times a week from Melbourne. Rex Air uses a 34 seat Saab 340 and flies from Melbourne daily.  Plenty of ways to get there and easy to combine with a Barnbougle trip.

King Island air fly the most to King Island but in a 9 seater Chieftain and only occasionally in the bigger plane.  Their airfares are close to $400 return, and golf clubs are not included as part of the baggage allowance. They are charged at $8.00 per kg, so that's another $100 plus each way.

Golf clubs are included as part of a 15kg allowance with Rex, who fly there once per day.  $7.70 per kg over that limit. So $200 each way, but non-refundable, so if the weather forecast is off, you either go or lose it.  Airfares are closer to $700 return if you want the refundable option.

Add car hire and one night accommodation if you take the Rex option, and you are up for about $900 depending upon accommodation costs, for two rounds of golf. Only works out a little less if you fly King Island air and leave first thing in the morning and play 36 then return the same day.

That is a very limited market to aim for.  It will be once and done for most people.  

Mark,
how do you think that comparison stands up against the same ones being done over 10 years ago for Bridport? Amazing golf, in an attractive/remote place, will draw plenty of people to play - won't it? Even if just to experience it. I have no doubt the charter market will continue to grow, and will add this drop to their itinerary, with perhaps the dollars dropping a little if market competition allows. The larger carriers may improve their offer, or at least make adjustments to golfing market. They will have very quiet months, but that is ok, because I've no doubt it was designed to be maintained lean, kept lean, with a lean run house, so no big gaping money pit when that happens, in relation to the rest of the golf market anyway, IMO

[Greg Tallman]

If the course turns out to be one of the top 30 or so in the world, and from photos it appears it could well be in that neighborhood, I imagine they will be able to reset the bar in terms of pricing and allow Barnbougle to charge a but more as well.

From those that have been there... IS it as good as the photos suggest?

[JC Jones]

Does the green fee include a cheese platter ?

It apparently comes with a lot of whine. 

I'm very interested in seeing how the course turns out.  From the pictures it looks like it interacts with the ocean in many different ways from being both up on the bluffs to right down at sea level.  This is different from, say, Bandon or Cabot Cliffs which are great courses but only interact with the ocean from up on the cliffs/bluffs.

I agree with Greg, if it is top 30 in the world, people will pay the fee.  Not too mention, the fee is inconsequential when thinking of the travel costs, particularly for Americans.

[JC Jones]

Three airlines service King Island. Sharp Airlines uses a 19 seat Fairchild Metroliner with daily flights from 2 airports on Tasmania.  King Island Air uses an 18 seater and flys 12 times a week from Melbourne. Rex Air uses a 34 seat Saab 340 and flies from Melbourne daily.  Plenty of ways to get there and easy to combine with a Barnbougle trip.

King Island air fly the most to King Island but in a 9 seater Chieftain and only occasionally in the bigger plane.  Their airfares are close to $400 return, and golf clubs are not included as part of the baggage allowance. They are charged at $8.00 per kg, so that's another $100 plus each way.

Golf clubs are included as part of a 15kg allowance with Rex, who fly there once per day.  $7.70 per kg over that limit. So $200 each way, but non-refundable, so if the weather forecast is off, you either go or lose it.  Airfares are closer to $700 return if you want the refundable option.

Add car hire and one night accommodation if you take the Rex option, and you are up for about $900 depending upon accommodation costs, for two rounds of golf. Only works out a little less if you fly King Island air and leave first thing in the morning and play 36 then return the same day.

That is a very limited market to aim for.  It will be once and done for most people. 

A quick google search shows that it is anywhere from $300-500 roundtrip from Melbourne to Launceston.  Then, of course, you have a transfer out to the resort and accommodations as well.

Mark, your comments would be much more noteworthy if a) you hadn't been pissing on this from the beginning because they hired a yank and b) you were applying your criticism to all remote golf experiences uniformly.

[Adam Lawrence]

JC - I was surprised to see the figures you quoted from Melbourne to Launceston. When I went, it cost much less. So I did a quick search on Kayak, for a couple of random days next month, and got a bunch of Jetstar fares of GBP 69 (A$127 or USD 112). This is much more inline with my experience.

[Tom_Doak]

I agree with Greg, if it is top 30 in the world, people will pay the fee.  Not too mention, the fee is inconsequential when thinking of the travel costs, particularly for Americans.

Absolutely, but they surely aren't counting on visiting Americans being a significant portion of business.  How many Americans do you think play at Barnbougle or even Royal Melbourne in a given year?  [I do know the answer to this.]  Both of them are ALREADY top 30 in the world, but their pricing schemes are very much different, because Royal Melbourne has a full membership and Barnbougle needs to fill their tee sheets.

[Ash Towe]

In the golf bookings section of the website they now have some golf packages available.  Transport, transfers and accommodation all included.  Not sure if this represents good value or not.

[JC Jones]

JC - I was surprised to see the figures you quoted from Melbourne to Launceston. When I went, it cost much less. So I did a quick search on Kayak, for a couple of random days next month, and got a bunch of Jetstar fares of GBP 69 (A$127 or USD 112). This is much more inline with my experience.

Fair enough.  I searched google to return fares on major airlines, I am unfamiliar with the small regional carriers.

[JC Jones]

I agree with Greg, if it is top 30 in the world, people will pay the fee.  Not too mention, the fee is inconsequential when thinking of the travel costs, particularly for Americans.

Absolutely, but they surely aren't counting on visiting Americans being a significant portion of business.  How many Americans do you think play at Barnbougle or even Royal Melbourne in a given year?  [I do know the answer to this.]  Both of them are ALREADY top 30 in the world, but their pricing schemes are very much different, because Royal Melbourne has a full membership and Barnbougle needs to fill their tee sheets.

I didn't say they were counting on Americans. 

[RJ_Daley]

Do any of you blokes know if you can land a seaplane on Flannigan Lake?

As many in our part of the world know, it is very much common and inexpensive for fishermen to fly-in to the multitude of fishing resorts located in Canada, off the road systems.  That is all done with seaplanes.  The fly in distances appear roughly the same -about 150 miles.  A fishing camp or golf camp... what's the big difference?

[Greg Tallman]

I agree with Greg, if it is top 30 in the world, people will pay the fee.  Not too mention, the fee is inconsequential when thinking of the travel costs, particularly for Americans.

Absolutely, but they surely aren't counting on visiting Americans being a significant portion of business.  How many Americans do you think play at Barnbougle or even Royal Melbourne in a given year?  [I do know the answer to this.]  Both of them are ALREADY top 30 in the world, but their pricing schemes are very much different, because Royal Melbourne has a full membership and Barnbougle needs to fill their tee sheets.

Do either of them interact with the ocean nearly as much as CW?

[Howard Riefs]

High praise from Bill Schultz:

“King Island is the new Sand Hills of the golfing world, Cape Wickham is a stunning achievement. … Mike DeVries with the full support of Darius Oliver has designed a world top 25 course at this time.”

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,51966.275.html (2nd post)

[Josh Stevens]

Hm dunno?

Looks gorgeous, but gosh also severe in spots for what is an immensely windy place.

Wish them the best of luck, but I just cant shake this feeling that its economically on the edge.  Barnbougle is doable as its a whole state hanging off the bottom of it, but Australians are pretty hopeless when it comes to golf tourism.  The problem is that we are a small country and the kinds of people who play golf and have the money to go King Island are also members of Royal Melbourne and so its a once a year sort of jaunt as they are quite happy at home.